Visions of a Changed Past
by legendary113
Summary: Lysithea is annoyed that she has to fetch her professor when he doesn't show up for the strategy meeting.
1. Chapter 1

I wrote a thing. I don't write.

* * *

Lysithea was annoyed.

All she could think about as she stomped through the newly captured Bridge of Myrddin was her former professor. He did it_ again_. Every time she thought he would actually be on time for a war council or training session he just failed to show up! He was never a second late in the academy, so why was he so hopeless now, and why did she have to be the one sent to fetch him?!

She continued her single minded march through the fort, people quickly parting in front of the white haired girl upon sighting her, not wanting to catch a piece of her clear anger directed at them.

Soon her destination was in sight, the room Professor Byleth was using while they occupied the bridge before they marched into empire territory. Once Lysithea reached the room, she immediately barged through the door, not an ounce of hesitation in her movements as she prepared to give the green haired man a piece of her mind.

"Professo-" She began angrily, before halting at the sight before her. Byleth had discarded his armour and shirt, and was currently on his bed, cleaning a deep looking wound in left shoulder blade with a small cloth and some alcohol he had next to him.

A moment of silence past between the two as their eyes met.

As Lysithea looked back at the wound she found all her fury dissipating, replaced with confusion and concern as her clearly injured professor sighed, moving the cloth away from the wound and turning slightly to face her more directly.

"What did you need Lysithia?" He asked the still silent girl, seemingly unperturbed by the large, exposed wound in his shoulder blade.

With any trace of rage now having completely dissipated, she softly answered with a question of her own.

"Why?" She asked him "Why aren't you at the medical bay?" she continues, as the black clad man only continues to stare in response.

"That's not a small wound, if that gets infecte-"

"Lysithia." Byleth cuts her off suddenly.

"Y-Yes?" she stammers out, surprised by the sudden interruption.

"Please forget you saw anything, and don't tell anyone what you saw." He calmly orders her. Lysithea reels in surprise.

"I'm sorry?" she asks.

"I'm asking you to not tell anyone about my injury, and for you to forget about it yourself." Byleth repeats back to her. Her pink eyes lock with his green ones, and they hold each others gaze silently for a moment, studying each other. But while it was only a moment, for Lysithea it felt like an eternity as she recalled a memory from her academy days.

* * *

5 years earlier.

Lysithea was shaken

Only hours ago, the Golden Deer were in a dangerous skirmish with a large number of individuals that were seeking the Tomb of Seiros in the holy Mausoleum. It was a difficult battle for the Students as it was many of their first times facing off against trained combatants, and due to this fact, several of her classmates were injured in the battle.

Ignatz hesitated to shoot an opponent, and that moment of hesitation had allowed him to be struck by the glancing blow of an axe. It wasn't life threatening, but he needed a new uniform after the mission from the stains.

Lorenz was struck by a Miasma spell from the side, the darkness eating through his uniform and into his skin. he was fortunate his mount took the worst of the hit, or he would have lost his leg for sure.

Marianne was hit by an arrow right through her right forearm. Lysithea could still hear her pained cries and whispers to the Goddess echoing in her ears as she had to remove the arrow to close the wound with her magic.

But the one that scared her the most was her Professor. She recalled how after he killed the Mage commanding the troops with that strange sword that was in the tomb of Seiros- with her help of course, that knight dressed in jagged black armour with that wicked scythe that made him appear like death itself charged at them.

It felt like the knight closed the gap in an instant, his steed moving at speeds far greater than it should be capable with all its heavy armour, and as it reached them faster than she could react, she felt the world slow down as she watched the black-clad knight swing deaths scythe towards her, But in that moment she felt a powerful wave of magic, followed by time stopping completely, and swore she had a vision of the blade entering her professors flesh as he leapt in front of the blade for her. She stumbled as the vision ended and she felt time continue like it never stopped. She watched as the professors new sword parried the lightning fast descending swing of the blade towards her, redirecting its path just barely away from her, saving her and disproving the vision she saw.

Ignoring that strange vision, she quickly recollected herself and fired a Miasma spell at the knight's steed, forcing him to retreat or risk losing the mount to the blast of dark magic. Not wasting a second, Byleth rushed forward to capitalise on his retreat swinging that strange glowing sword in a reverse grip vertical slash aiming for the Horses neck, attempting to negate the knights speed and height advantage. but before the blade could strike, the knights armoured gauntlet intercepted the blow, with barely a dent in the armour to show for it.

After the unsuccessful strike on the horse, Lysithea felt time slow and the accompanying wave of magic again, this time noting the purple haze that slightly obscured her vision as time slowed and stopped. She stared, incapable of movement as Byleth and the Knight were the only things that continued to move through her vision. She stared as Byleth went for another strike, this time aiming for the rider. but as the blade closed on the mysterious knights neck the knight caught the blade with one hand, and without hesitation swung the scythe at Byleths neck. Lysithea tried to scream as her professors head left his shoulders, but the frozen time wouldn't allow her to.

As her professors head flew from his shoulders the purple in her vision vanished, and as it disappeared, her professor and the knight re-appeared in the positions they were in as Byleths sword struck the knights gauntlet. But this time instead of going for an attack on the rider, Byleth spun and took a stance to block the scythe swinging for his neck from behind with his new sword, somehow aware the strike was coming. Lysithea watched in shock as instead of bracing for a block or parry, Byleth ducked under the strike as his sword split into segments and wrapped around the scythe, as it impacted the blade. Byleth then used his lower centre of gravity and properly braced stance and pulled, tearing the scythe out of the hands of the overextending knight who expected to remove his opponents head with one powerful strike. As the knights scythe flew from his hands and across the room, Byleth made another attempt to charge the knight but was forced to cancel his attack and evade when the knight raised his hand and fired a beam of electricity towards the the surprised professor.

The recognition of the Thoron spell snapped Lysithea out of her trance as she remembered that she had to help.

_"The knight is fast_._"_ Lysthiea thought to herself

_"So __I__'ll slow him down!"_ she mentally shouted as she blasted her Swarm spell at the knight, immediately forcing him on the defensive, as the spells insect like projectiles relentlessly hunted him and his horse down. As the Swarm chased after the rider, Lysithea fired more Miasma blasts in an attempt to strike him down while he was distracted. Much to her frustration however the knight seemed to effortlessly evade all her attacks even with the swarm chasing him. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Byleth prepare to swing his weapon from a large distance much to her confusion. it wasn't until Byleth went through with the strike that she understood. Her professors blade extended out of its sword shape like a whip and leapt towards the mounted knight at high speed. This proved to be too much for the knight, as the shining red whip like sword crashed into the knights stomach while he wasn't braced, forcefully removing him from his steed as the impact pushed him back several metres, landing on his back with a loud crash.

As the two quickly closed in on the knight to finish the job, they heard a laugh echoing from the knights helmet, causing them to pause. "That sword is... I see. What a pleasant surprise." his hollow voice echoed through the room, sounding almost distorted by a magical force. Just as the knight finished speaking, he was immediately consumed by a shining light, disappearing entirely. Right after he vanished, the shining light appeared again, this time consuming the horse and scythe, leaving no trace the knight was ever there to begin with.

"Teach! Lysithea! You ok?" They suddenly hear Claude call out as he rounds the corner. A look of relief spreads across his face.

"Thank whatever God listened. Marianne got hit while we were taking the right side and could really use some help." Claude called as he ran over to them.

Lysithea shook her head, trying to get the memories of her classmates pain out of her head. It did little to help however, as much like the last few times she tried to get rid of them, they just continued to play back through her mind. The part that kept drawing her attention however were those purple tinted 'visions' that she saw. What were they? What caused them? What do they mean? Were they meant for her? Or did she see them when she wasn't supposed too? They made her head spin, but she was not going to write this off. She saw those, they were _real. _And until she got an answer, she didn't plan to give up on figuring out what they were. her best standing theory was they had something to do with the sword the professor picked up. She didn't start seeing these visions until after he began using it, and now with proper time to observe the weapon, she realised it was a Hero's Relic, and those were powerful tools with all kinds of special abilities according to the many books she had read on the subject. She had to figure out what these visions were, and the first step would be to speak with her professor.

Little did she know how close that decision would get her to her professor.

* * *

The Bridge of Myrddin.

Of course at the time she uncovered nothing, made no breakthroughs in her attempt to figure out these visions. But after the Professor returned from Solon blasting him with that 'Forbidden spell' with his hair and eyes changing, that new power flowing off of him in waves, she became certain that the Sword of the Creator had nothing to do with her visions, That it was her Professor who caused her to see these things.

Coming back to the moment, Lysithea continued to look Byleth directly in the eye and gave her answer.

"No." Lysithea declared.

"I'm sorry?" he replies, surprised that she refused so bluntly. "You should be." She responds immediately.

"I'm not going to just stand back and let you destroy yourself in some childish attempt to raise moral." She finished, her earlier anger returning.

"How did-" Byleth began, before immediately being interrupted by Lysithea.

"Because this childish nonsense is exactly something you would do! It's just like how back in the academy days you would always pretend you were in control of every situation at all times, even though you definitely weren't!" She shouted, clearly frustrated.

"I wasn't pretendi-" Byleth began before being cut off again.

"Don't even try to lie to me." Lysithea hissed at him.

"I'm not stupid Professor, you were certainly not in control when the Death Knight took your head clean off in The Holy Mausoleum!" She ranted at him, angered even further by his attempt at lying.

Byleth suddenly looked confused.

"...Don't you mean _almost_ took my head off?" Byleth questioned her. Lysithea froze, realising now what she had just said. She felt her mind split in two, arguing if she should tell the truth or play it off as a mistake. One look at her conflicted and stunned face was all Byleth needed to make the choice for her.

"Shut the door." Byleth ordered. Lysithea felt her face light on fire at the sudden demand as her gaze snapped to the floor.

"P-Professor- wh- what?" She stammered out.

"You know more than you should. This conversation is for our ears only." Byleth spoke in response.

_"Oh. Right."_ Lysithea thought to herself.

_"Of course he wasn't... Ugh. Idiot." _Hiding her burning face by turning around and doing as he ordered. As she turned around after shutting the door, she kept her gaze trained on her feet, rather embarrassed by the assumption she made. She was snapped out of her staring at the floor by Byleth.

"Sit." He calmly spoke. Lysithea turned her vision up to see her Professor patting the space adjacent to him on his bed. Her vision snapped back at the ground as her blush came back in full force from her professor asking her to sit on his bed. Lysithea quickly collected herself to the best of her ability, and then moved to sit down next to her professor.

There was silence for a moment between the two as they both tried to figure out how to start the conversation.

"...At least let me heal your wound if i'm going to be next to it." Lysithea decided to begin with.

"...Very well." Byleth conceded, allowing her access to the wound as her hands begun to glow with white magic. As she started healing his wound, Byleth asked the question.

"What have you seen?" he asked.

"Honestly? Not a lot. I saw you get struck twice in the Holy Mausoleum, but that was the last time i witnessed the... visions." She replied truthfully. She continued.

"I Spent a lot of time trying to figure out what it was i saw, my first guess was the Sword of the Creator, but after what happened in the sealed forest i changed my mind, and decided it must have been you."

Byleth turned to look at the wall.

"You were close. It wasn't technically me however, it was Sothis." Lysithea raised an eyebrow.

"Like... The Goddess?" Lysithea asked. Byleth nodded.

"She has lived in my head since i was born. She granted me the ability to revert time in short increments a limited number of times." Byleth finished. Lysithea went silent, thinking about this revelation. it was almost certainly the truth, Her Professor clearly had some sort of connection to the Goddess after all the events that took place during her year at Garreg Mach. In addition it did line up with what she saw in the Mausoleum, with her professor being killed, rewinding time and then changing the events that took place with his foreknowledge. Lysithea focused on the wound she was healing

"If you can rewind time, why didn't you fix this when it happened?" She asked, confused as to why he wouldn't just go back to before the incident took place.

"Like i said, its usage is limited. I will not waste it on minor wounds like this when I might need them for my students." Byleth adamantly stated. The white haired girl looked at him in concern.

"Professor... If this wound was any closer to your shoulder, your arm would have likely suffered permanent damage. That is not a minor wound."

"I would happily throw my whole arm away if it meant you all come out of each battle unscathed." The former Professor spoke with conviction.

Lysitheas eyes widened as he said that, before they settled into a sadness as she realized the true meaning behind his words.

"How many times?" She asked him solemnly

"More than i could ever count. I've seen the people i love slaughtered in more ways than i could ever imagine." Byleth forced out, clearly troubled more than his expression let on.

"I see..." Lysithea whispered out. "Then... Jeralt?" She asked.

"I ran out." Was all he said in response. Lysithea froze.

"I-Im sorry professor, i shouldn't have asked that, it was insensitive of me." Lysithea quickly rushed out when it caught up with her exactly what she had just asked him.

"No. Its fine." He replied.

"If i'm being honest, it feels... comforting... knowing that someone else knows about her power." Byleth added. Lysithea nodded.

"I understand professor. I'll take on and share the burden of your experiences, like you did for me." Lysithea stated with conviction, staring into his eyes.

Lysithea quickly found herself lost in the green orbs that were his eyes. His eyes were the one true place you could be certain of his emotions. Where his body failed to express, his eyes more than made up for it. and right now they showed nothing but gratitude and... another emotion she cant recall seeing in his eyes before? As she continued to try and figure out this new emotion Byleth opened his mouth to speak.

"Uh, Lysithea? I think my wound is healed." Byelth said... awkwardly? Lysithea snapped out of her trance and glanced down to his shoulder blade, seeing his wound was indeed fully healed, with little more than a scar to tell it was there in the first place.

"Oh! I... Uh... Sorry? Lysithea apologised uncertainly. Byleth let out a rare smile in response.

"No, Thank you. I'm sorry i didn't come for help with it, its just... you all have enough on your shoulders as is with this war, and i don't want to put anymore burdens on you than i already have."

Lysithea was stunned.

"THAT'S why you haven't come to us for healing, or asked to do things with us like in the monastery?" Lysithea asked in surprise.

"Yes? I-I didn't want to bother any of you..." He half mumbled in reply. Lysithea laughed in response, a loud honest laugh the reverberated throughout the room.

"Goddess you're an idiot.." She said with a smile on her face before she suddenly found herself thrusting her lips forwards to meet his. Byleths eyes widened in shock as Lysithea kissed him. He just froze on the spot, uncertain of how to deal with this new... situation. Lysithea meanwhile, screamed at herself internally

_"WHAT AM I DOING!? HE'S MY PROFESSOR!" _one half of her screeched at her, while the other half argued

_"Not anymore, you're both full adults capable of making you own decisions and OH MY GODDESS WE'RE KISSING HIM WHAT DO WE DO?!"_ Before she could freak out any further, they heard the sound of the door clicking open.

"Hey Teach, you coming or not? I sent Lysithea to get you... but..." Claude trailed off at the sight before him. Byleth shirtless, Lysithea with him, on his bed, kissing him. Lysithea jumped away from Byleth as Claude's voice cut through the kiss.

"Well what have I interrupted here?" Claude questioned as a large smile broke out across his face. Lysithea let loose a lethal glare in his direction.

"Claude Von Riegan, if you don't shut up and walk away right now, no one will find the body." The Almyran mans grin only widened in response. "

No problem, I'll just go let everyone know why you two are so late." He teased as he walked away from the door.

Whispers circled the army for days afterwards about a mysterious banshee like screech followed by several loud explosions, and what appeared to be Duke Riegan laughing uncontrollably as he sprinted as fast as he could.

Fin.

* * *

I wrote the thing. I just wrote words. I don't know if it makes sense or not.


	2. Chapter 2

Some friends in the Church of Lysithea discord wanted more of this for some reason, so i made more. Sorry everyone else.

* * *

Byleth found his mind drifting as he worked.

Tomorrow Claude and Himself would be heading into Riegan territory for a round-table meet up between the Alliance Lords to decide what they would do regarding the Empire and their little takeover of the Great Bridge of Myrddin. This was massively important and required his undivided attention, and yet Byleth could feel his mind constantly trying to drift to other thoughts that plagued him.

As he managed the mountain of paper work before him, The green haired man recalled the feeling from two days ago. The feeling of her lips. Their soft feeling as they made contact with his own, and the rush of blood through his body from his non beating heart. But above all, what stood out to him the most was the taste.

"_Strawberries…" _He remembered, the phantom taste clinging to his taste-buds like no taste ever had before. Not even the strongest of sweets held a candle to the intoxication he felt from the taste of her lips on his.

And this confused the former Professor. While he had been kissed by woman before, none had ever given him a reaction like this. What made Lysithea's kiss different from the others before? What was the feeling in his chest that made it feel like his still heart was beating? Was it that the white haired girl was his student? That was something that made her stand out from the others.

Byleth set his quill down. The more he tried to fight against them the more these thoughts struggled back. He needed a new strategy against them.

As Byleth stepped out of his room, he made his way towards where his strategist against this new threat to his ability to work would be.

* * *

Lysithea was mortified.

Lysithea paced pack and fourth in her room at the Great Bridge of Myrddin, face almost glowing red.

Two days ago she got way ahead of herself and kissed her former professor. And not like a kiss on the cheek. No she went all in. It wasn't something she intended to do, it just sort of happened on an impulse that she couldn't stop. And now she's scared she ruined her relationship with him forever.

Byleth was… different. She never fully understood how his mind worked, but it was clear he thought about things very differently than she. One thing she and everyone noticed immediately though however was his… To put it politely, less than stellar social skills. Of course she wasn't exactly a social angel, but he was something else.

He had a difficult time understanding basic social etiquette and even failed to understand what should be basic things. She recalled one time when a student joked about the fish in the pond freezing from the cold north winds of Faerghus, he learned how to cast fire and sat their warming the water for hours until Seteth found him there. He said he "didn't want to risk loosing a valuable food supply".

Of course this was silly because traders came to and from the Monastery every single day, but still he was insistent about not risking letting the fish freeze. Many of the students were confused at first, but it quickly grew into intrigue as students started testing exactly how sheltered Byleth was. The real surprise was that he seemed to treat even the smallest task assigned to him like it was a grand mission he had been tasked with by a great general.

He also took many simple things that weren't his problem very seriously too. Many students noticed he made sure to understand his students as closely as possible, to try and increase their ability to work with each other on the battlefield. His fascination with lost items was of great interest too the student body too. People would intentionally "loose" items too see if he could correctly guess who's it was.

Essentially Lysithea was completely lost on how he might react to her kiss. He was seemingly totally unaware of or didn't care about sexual advances, and she saw plenty of students make attempts at those, with not even a blush gracing his cheeks.

And she kissed him on the lips! She felt her face glow even brighter at the thought. What would he think? Would he think it was gross? Would he think her a distraction? Would… Would he even _know_ what a kiss is..?

She shook her head in an attempt to dispel those thoughts.

"_Come on Lysithea, you're a mature, adult woman. You can handle… whatever… this is…"_ Lysithea trailed of with her thought.

What was this even? She was so busy panicking out about what her professor would think that she hadn't even taken the time to sort out her own feelings.

"What… Am I feeling?" She wondered aloud. Was it just a simple crush? Or was it more?

"I should ask Hilda, she would know what to do." She thought aloud, before moving to grab some cake and a coat for the short trip over.

* * *

"I'm sorry?" Hilda asked, genuinely lost.

"I need you to help me with a strategy against these thought plaguing my mind." Byleth repeated to her.

"First, why do you want me to strategize? That's you, Claude and Lysithea's job, not mine. Second, what do you mean by 'These thoughts plaguing your mind?' Hilda questioned him with annoyance, frustrated at having her craft time interrupted.

"I need you since the thoughts that are plaguing me are matters I'm very unfamiliar with, and my belief is that you are the most experienced and knowledgeable person on the subject here."

Hilda sighed in response

"OK Professor, what are these thought 'plaguing your mind?' She asked him with obvious frustration in her voice, wanting to just get this over with.

"I cant stop thinking about Lysithea." Byleth answered with total sincerity.

In an instant, all of Hilda's frustration vanished. Her slumped shoulder suddenly jumped up and her arched back snapped straight.

"What kind of thoughts are they?" Hilda asked eagerly, a predatory gleam in her pink eyes.

"Well, after Lysithea kissed me-" Byleth was suddenly cut off as Hilda grabbed his face and pulled him close.

"After she did _what?_" Hilda demanded.

"S-She kissed me?" Byleth answered, uncertain of what this side of Hilda meant for him.

Hilda stared into his eyes with an unrivalled intensity for only a few seconds, but to Byleth it felt like an eternity of her peering into his soul.

"You. Will. Tell. Me. Everything." Hilda ordered him with a ferocity he had never seen in a person before.

"Uh… OK?" Byleth answered uncertainly, now questioning if coming to Hilda was the correct idea.

"...Hm." Hilda seemed to ponder something as Byleth finished telling her the story of two days prior, with certain Goddess related details left out.

"I'll admit, I expected it to be more romantic and less… impulsive? Also I really thought you would be the one to initiate." Hilda said dejectedly.

"That aside, What do you feel for her? Hilda asked him.

"What do you mean?" Byleth asked.

"She's my student and I want to see her grow and thrive, like all of you." Byleth answered slightly confused.

"No professor, I'm asking you when you think of Lysithea, when you picture her smiling in your head, what do you feel?" Hilda asked him, smiling.

Byleth stopped for a moment to think.

"_What do I feel when I imagine her smile?"_ Byleth thought to himself as he closed his eyes, imagining his white haired student in her attire she returned into the monastery in, a soft smile on her face as she looked in his direction.

He felt his blood rush. A hint of heat on his cheeks. A desire to protect her, so that she could retain the expression. A desire to get… Closer.

Byleth opened his eyes and locked his green eyes with her pink.

"I see. I want to hold her close. I wish to see her happy. That's… That's what romantic feelings are like, aren't they? That's the sort of things my father spoke of in his journal when talking about my mother…" Byleth trailed off. Hilda's excitement suddenly vanished.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" Hilda started

"No. Its fine." Byleth responded, voice nearly a whisper. It all added up. Lysithea was definitely the student he was closest with, and his feelings towards Lysithea did match his admittedly shallow understanding of romance.

"Romance was something I never even consciously considered, especially not with one of my students… But I suppose it makes sense. The things I read from my Fathers diary… I feel a dulled sense of what he describes." Byleth spoke, more to himself than the girl in front of him. After a moment of silence he speaks up.

"So what do I do?" He asks Hilda.

"You tell her of course!" Hilda answered incredulously.

"But she's my student, I cant-" Byleth began but was once again interrupted by Hilda.

"Not anymore she's not. Professor its been _5 years._ While it may not feel like long for you, we're all adults. We're not your students anymore." Hilda argued with him.

Byleth paused and pondered that thought. While it was true that for him he had only been gone for hours, for them 5 whole years had past. Most of his students were older than him if they didn't count the days that he was gone. Even Lysithea was only a year younger than him now.

"Besides, She's the one who kissed you. While she may a bit confused herself, I have a hunch she has feelings for you in return." Hilda finished with a self satisfied smirk on her face

"I- Yes. You're right. I must speak with her." Byleth decided with certainty in his voice.

"Great, I have the perfect idea of how to do it…"

* * *

Just before Lysithea was about to collect some cake before she went for a walk, She heard a knock on her door.

Lysithea hesitated as she went to open the door. Instead of opening it straight away she decided she should figure out if it was someone she could speak with in her current state.

"W-Who is it?" She asked, immediately cursing the small stutter in her voice.

"I-Its just m-me Lysithea." The perpetually nervous sounding voice of Marianne answered from the other side.

Lysithea sighed in relief. Marianne was someone she could deal with, the soft spoken girl wouldn't pry about the rumour's around camp right now.

"W-Would you like some tea? I managed to get s-some sweet apple blend." Marianne asked, knowing that Lysithea was very fond of that particular blend.

"Oh yes! I would love some thank you, please come in!" Lysithea almost shouted in response. After all, what better way to calm her nerves than a high dosage of sugar?

Lysithea quickly opened the door for Marianne, seeing the blue haired girl standing at the doorway with a gold tray and tea set in hand, a small smile on her face.

"Hello L-Lysithea." Marianne greeted her warmly.

"Hey Marianne, Come inside!" Lysithea answered with clear notes of excitement in her voice.

"Here, you can place it on this table here." Lysithea said as she walked over to the small table in the corner of her room.

Marianne followed her over, setting the tray down on the desk. As they prepared to sit and have tea together, Lysithea idly noted that the tea had already been prepared before she had arrived.

"_What if I had declined?" _She wondered to herself as they sat down at the desk.

As Marianne passed her a cup of tea, Lysithea reached for the sugar, making sure she could fill it the ideal amount of sugar. How do people have such little sugar in their tea anyway?

As they began to drink their tea, all was silent for a moment. The two of them simply enjoying their tea in the undisturbed peace.

Before long however Lysithea began to notice Marianne shuffling in her seat and not looking in her direction. While that would be normal for Marianne 5 years ago, this was a bit more strange now. It implied she was nervous. Marianne hadn't been nervous around her in some time. Even before the end of the academy days they were rather comfortable around each other.

So what could possibly be making her so uncomfortable? If she was this nervous, then something was up.

"So Marianne, what brought you to my room today with already prepared tea?" Lysithea began probing.

"I-I… Um… I had this tea… and I know you like it s-so I wanted t-to share it with you?" Marianne answered in a tone that sounded more like a question than an answer.

"Mhm, I see, but why had you already prepared it before I agreed to drink with you?" Lysithea began to pressure.

"I um… I already… already had p-prepared it in my room before I remembered that you liked it, so I b-brought it here to see if you wanted s-some too." Marianne answered, growing more nervous at the probing.

"Of course, Of course. And may I also ask why you have one of Claude's Tea sets when you prepared in your room, with your own tea set available?" Lysithea asked the big question before taking a long sip of her tea.

Marianne froze. Lysithea just watched her as she finished her sip before setting her tea cup down on the desk.

"Now Marianne. You're going to tell me exactly for what purpose you're here, and why." Lysithea calmly ordered her.

Marianne remained frozen on the spot.

"Marianne." Lysithea ordered with slightly more emphasis.

"I-I…." Marianne began before being cutoff by the door being suddenly kicked open.

Lysithea's eyes snapped towards the door only to see Claude standing in the door way with Failnaught in his hands, a strange looking arrow knocked in the bow and pointed at her. Lysithea immediately went on guard seeing the bow pointed at her and summoned a Miasma spell.

"Marianne! Run!" Claude suddenly yelled. Lysithea turned back to where the blue haired girl was a moment before only to see her climbing out the window of her room, tea set abandoned.

Lysithea turned her attention back to Claude only to see a wall of white flying in her direction. She quickly identified that Claude had fired his strange arrow at her, and so she released the Miasma she had prepared, blasting through the white wall without any hindrance. It was then she realized what it was that Claude had fired at her. It wasn't some kind of strange new arrow he had invented, but a tightly wrapped blanket that has unraveled when he fired, obscuring him from her vision while he ran away!

As the Miasma blasted through the blanket-arrow, Lysithea reached behind her to grab her weapon of choice against the dastard, smiling as her hand gripped the tea cup that Marianne only lightly sipped from, before sprinting through the door after Claude.

As she rounded the corner she saw Claude sprinting off in the direction of Hilda's room, and immediately gave chase, knowing that's where he would be heading thanks to her little interrogation.

* * *

Hilda was excited.

She was getting to help her former professor and one of her best friends get together. This was like a dream. She was absolutely going to go the extra mile with this.

"OK, so she loves lilies. Like, loves them. If you gave her a bouquet of lilies when you tell her it would be super rom-"

_*CRASH*_

Hilda jumped as she was suddenly cut off by her window pretty much exploding as she helped her professor plan out how to confess to Lysithea.

A moment after the window shattered, Claude lept through what remained of the window, and looked Hilda dead in the eye.

"Had to use Marianne." Was all he said.

Before Hilda could even get a word out in response she heard exactly what she feared.

"CLAUDE! I'M GOING TO SKIN YOU ALIVE!" Came Lysithea's voice from outside her room.

Looking down, Hilda saw the culprit for her broken window. The shattered remains of one of Claude's tea cups.

"Claude what the hell did you do!?" Hilda yelled at him, getting visibly more annoyed with each passing second.

"She was coming over here! I had to keep her away from you while you dealt with Teach!" Claude yelled back in a panic.

"But Marianne? Seriously? She couldn't make a convincing lie to save her life!" Hilda asked, incredulous as to how he came to the conclusion to use her.

"What is going on here!?" Byleth butted in, having given up trying to makes sense of the situation himself.

Before either of the two could answer however, Hilda's door evaporated in a torrent of violet energy, with Lysithea running in the moment the blast cleared.

"CLAUDE, Whe-" Lysithea began before before seeing the 3 people in the room staring at her. She locked eyes first with Claude, then Hilda before finally locking eyes with Byleth. After staring for a moment she turned a shining scarlet before grabbing her cheeks and turning to run out of the room. Claude turned to look at Hilda

"Salvage this." Was all he said.

"Me?" Hilda asked Incredulously

"You're the one who started this mess, making this plan and then going and screwing it up like that! You go salvage this!" Hilda fired back at Claude.

"Do you really think she wants to see me right now? I need you to fix this. I'll owe you." Claude replied, knowing exactly how things would turn out if he tried to talk to her.

"Hmph. More than you already do." Hilda loudly whispered under her breath, but relented nonetheless, walking towards the direction Lysithea ran off to.

* * *

Byleth turned to look at Claude.

"What in Sothis's name was that?" He asked him, thoroughly confused by the chain of events that had transpired in such a short time.

Claude simply sighed in response.

Lysithea just ran. She kept running. She didn't look where, she didn't look back. She wasn't ready to face him, not yet.

"Lysithea wait!" She heard Hilda's voice call out for her. She didn't stop running.

"Hey!" She heard her call again, closer this time.

"Stop running!" She did the opposite.

"Oh for the love of-" Hilda suddenly cut off as Lysithea suddenly felt herself grabbed around the waist. She immediately began to struggle before Hilda started getting annoyed.

"Sit still for the love of Sothis or I'll start treating you like the child you're acting like!" Hilda yelled at her. This made Lysithea stop in place as she thought about what she was currently doing.

Being held in the air, struggling around in a vain effort to escape the far stronger girls grasp.

She looked like a child.

"Fine… Just put me down." Lysithea grumbled out in response.

"Will you run?" Hilda asked her cautiously.

"...No." Lysithea responded. Its not like she could get away after all.

Hilda then placed her back on the ground, as Lysithea turned around she checked if anyone else was with them, but they were alone.

"...What were you all doing?" She eventually asked Hilda.

"Truthfully, we were trying to help you sort this thing out. We didn't want it to remain as awkward and unfocused as it was between the two of you. I mean you refused to do anything withing 100 meters of him, and he couldn't focus on his work at all. Something had to be done."

He couldn't focus on his work? Was he that bothered by what happened? Or… Was he… Could that possibly mean he feels… Something too?

"Hilda, When you say he couldn't focus…" Lysithea trailed off, looking at her with a questioning gaze.

"Maybe you should ask him yourself!" Hilda answered cheekily with a wink.

"But I don't even know how I feel yet. And even if I did…" Lysithea trailed off, looking up to the sky.

"'Even if you did…' What? What were you going to say?" Hilda prodded her.

"It doesn't matter… Just know it wouldn't be fair to him even if we did end up together." Lysithea answered dejectedly.

"Lysithea? What are you talking about? This is clearly important as one who is currently invested in what is happening." Hilda asked, concerned about what Lysithea is hiding.

Lysithea sighed, before looking down again at Hilda.

"I have a very limited time to live. At most, 5 more years. That's why it would be unfair to him." Lysithea admitted to Hilda, with the pink haired girl gasping in response.

"Lysithea I… You need to talk to him yourself. About your expected lifespan, and the feelings you harbour." Hilda told the girl gently.

"But I don't know what I feel for sure yet, I cant go and talk to him when I haven't even sorted that out myself!" Lysithea argued with her. Hilda just smiled and placed her hand on Lysithea's shoulder.

"Then think about how you feel. And once you figure that out, go talk to him." Hilda advised, removing her hand after she finished speaking.

"I… I'll do that. Thank you Hilda." Lysithea answered with a smile on her face.

* * *

"Claude." Hilda said to the man as he cleaned up her room from all the damage that was caused during Lysithea's small rampage.

"Yeah Hilda?" he replied.

"I did everything." The girl answered with clear irritation in her voice.

"Sorry Hilda, guess i owe even more huh?" Claude grimaced as he said the words allowed.

"Mhm. Damn right you do." She confirmed for him.

* * *

Well that took a bit longer than the first one. I kinda rushed the majority of this late at night since i'm going to be busy... well what is technically today now at the time i'm writing this. So sorry if it feels worse than the first chapter (if that's possible) or if there are more spelling mistakes. i'm kinda just working this whole writing thing out as i go along.

I would ask why you people would waste your valuable time reviewing this, but that just sounds super rude, so instead i'll thank you.

See you in the future. If i finish this.


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